More mileage in disused tyre dump

A DISUSED Mexborough tyre dump is set for a new lease of life, but first an eyesore used tyre mountain must be removed.

New owners of the dump aim to have the site safe, secure and fully functioning again by next spring.

David Blanshard and Roan Leadbeater, of DMR Recycling UK Ltd, have taken a ten-year lease on the former Tyre Trade premises in Whitelea Grove.

They now intend to make the site one of the region's main centres for tyre re-sale and recycling.

And their plans will include the creation of up to 15 new jobs in the town.

The first task facing the company is the sorting and disposal of an estimated 300,000 tyres left behind by the site's previous occupants.

"Some of the tyres are fit for re-sale but the rest will be shredded and then ground into granules for recycling in areas such as children's playgrounds and equestrian centres," David explained.

"The recycling process needs specialist equipment for things like the extraction of the metal in tyres which again can be recycled so we will be bringing in new machinery and shredders to the site once we have begun to restore some order."

The company is expecting that it will be May 2010 before the whole site is fully sorted, by which time a recruitment programme will be launched to find a permanent team of office staff and recycling workers.

"For the moment, one of our main concerns, apart from increasing round-the-clock security, is the removal of those existing tyres, which we know is of concern to our neighbours," said David, who has already had meetings with the Environment Agency about the company's plans.

"I think the Environment Agency is quite keen for us to move on as quickly as possible," he said. "I don't think it would be unfair to say that at the moment this is one of South Yorkshire's biggest eyesores and something that needs addressing without any further delay.

"We are a company making our first venture into recycling issues and we are keen to learn and to do things properly.

"We want to make a go of this financially but every company today has to be aware too of the impact it is making on the world around it and we feel our efforts will be of enormous benefit to Mexborough, creating new employment opportunities locally and also tackling a major environmental issue head on."